875 



show the application of this mode of winding up bands or rovings. Several of the 

 above -described machines are adapted with equal success to wool and flax. "Winding 

 directly from the carding engines the slivers separately upon long bobbins, twist is 

 given in two directions, for the purpose of uniting the fibres to some extent, so that 

 they may not only come off the bobbins without sticking to one another, but also that 

 they may draw smoother. Another machine is used by which several rovings, say 4 or 

 more, are put upon the same bobbin with conical ends ; these bobbins are placed be- 

 hind the mules or throstles, and are unwound by a belt or strap running parallel with 

 the fluted rollers of the spinning machine, as seen in fig. 1870. The belt or band, A, 

 is worked in a similar way to that described in a former patent, and the bobbins, B, 

 rest upon and revolve upon their surface, exactly according to the speed of the belt. 

 The most important feature in the roving machine is a metal plate, in which a slot is 

 formed through which the rovings pass ; this slot is seen in figs. 1877, 1878, and 1879. 



1876 



1877 



< J v o / \a...- vw,/ \ gy /__ 



^ r ~ t= 



1878 



B 



1879 



\ \ 



The cotton, when coming from the drawing rollers, is passed through the twisters, c, 

 and through the slot in the plate, D. Any convenient number of neatly-formed and 

 perfectly separate coils can be put upon the wooden barrel or bobbin. The bobbin 

 formed upon these machines is represented in fig. 1880, and the conical ends are 

 formed by a mechanism, by which the twisters, c, are caused to approach a little more 

 to one another, after each layer of rovings has been coiled round the barrel : the 

 section of the bobbin is, therefore, like that shown in fig. 1880. 



Rovings wound upon bobbins by means of tubes revolving in one direction are 

 certainly not so fit for spinning as rovings into which a small degree of twist is put. 

 The tube by which a twist is put in on one side and taken out at the other, curls or 

 ruffles the cotton, and causes it to spread out as it passes between the rollers, while 

 rovings with a little permanent twist in them are held together in the process of 

 drawing, and thus produce smooth yarn. To remedy the evil above described, when 

 untwisted rovings are used, the spouts or guides, through which the rovings pass into 

 or between the drawing rollers, are made to revolve slowly, first in one, and then in 

 the other direction, and thus a certain quantity of twist is put into the rovings while 

 they are being prepared for spinning. 



There is a little defect in the working of the rovings with reversed twist when too 

 much or too little twist is put in them, or when the winding machine is not kept in 

 good order. This defect proceeds from the change in the twist of the roving seen at 

 A, fig. 1881 ; in this place the twist is not like that at B, and it would in some parts 



